SA News

Homes to share acid mine water costs

THE Department of Water Affairs has finally provided clarity on how it will fund the treatment of contaminated water seeping out of old mining networks in Gauteng.

The long-term solution to the problem of acid-mine drainage will see end users, including households in the province, bearing a third of the cost, while mining companies will ultimately fund the rest of the cost.

The cost of constructing the necessary treatment facilities was estimated at between R10bn and R12bn, Minister for Water Affairs and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane said on Wednesday.

Mining companies will pay for 67% of the cost through a proposed environmental levy based on a "polluter pays" principle.

The project would augment the supply of safe and potable water, Mokonyane said at the launch of the project in Germiston.

Construction of plants that will further treat polluted water in the province is expected to begin in 2018, with the Treasury agreeing to contribute R600m per year to the project in expectation of the recovery of funds collected from the mining sector.

The cost to the consumer was fair, Mokonyane said, considering that improvements would be made to the province’s water supply, already a cost factor in an increasingly water-scarce province.

The acid mine drainage issue in Gauteng is a more than century-old problem that has seen water polluted with heavy metals rising to the surface through historic mine workings in and around the Witwatersrand Basin, which continues to pose a serious threat to existing underground water reserves.

In 2011, as a short-term solution, the Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority was tasked with pumping polluted water into three regional treatment facilities, partly treating it, and then pumping it back into the river system so that it was diluted with fresh water. This has been sufficient only to keep down the levels of underground polluted water so that it does not breach the surface.

The running costs of the facilities across the three basins in Gauteng was estimated at R25m per month, the authority’s CEO James Ndlovu said on Wednesday

The long-term solution will ultimately be to desalinate the water so that it can be used directly by industry and consumers.

An environmental impact assessment will be completed by June 2017, and the new plants are expected to begin to operate in early 2020.

The cost structure developed had been made in consideration of the importance of mining to SA’s economy, the minister said.

"Nothing is going to apply retrospectively; we are not on a witch-hunt," she said.

"Our regulatory environment has to be tightened, so that the polluter-pay principle is implemented."

Foundation for a Sustainable Environment CEO Mariette Liefferink said yesterday the foundation was "heartened" by the manner in which the department had taken up the issue. "However, we are still concerned regarding certain challenges, for example, the apportionment of liability. To hold only the last man standing liable and responsible for 130 years of mining may be inequitable and unpalatable," she said.

The Chamber of Mines said the proposed environmental levy and new infrastructure could cost more than had been proposed by the chamber. Treatment of water that was already pumped from mines on a cost-recovery basis, would not require new infrastructure, the chamber said.

The launch of Acid mine drainage in South Africa: Development actors, policy impacts and broader implications, by Suvania Naidoo, took place on 10 February 2017. The book has proven to be a timely publication because of the incipient water crisis in South Africa. The event was hosted by Unisa’s Department of Development Studies in the College of Human Sciences. The guests were welcomed by the chair of the department, Prof Gretchen du Plessis, who expressed that “development studies is an ever-changing discipline and is a space where different issues converge”. She further stated that the book fills a void in our knowledge about acid mine drainage (AMD) and that the publication is “an example of hard work which results in big achievements”.

A new hard-hitting report from Harvard Law School details how South Africa has failed to meet its human rights obligations concerning gold mining in and around Joburg. Bonnie Docherty, who led the research, spoke to Sheree Bega

A report has been published by the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic titled "The Cost of Gold: Environmental, Health, and Human Rights Consequences of Gold Mining in South Africa’s West and Central Rand.
The reports states, "The complex web of responsible government agencies and repeated legislative changes to that organizational structure have impeded the development of a coordinated plan to deal with the negative effects of mining. The limited scope of action, inadequate attention to at-risk communities, and insufficient consideration of environmental concerns have undermined the completeness of any response."

JOHANNESBURG South Africa has failed to protect residents affected by pollution from contaminated water and mine dumps over more than 130 years of gold mining near Johannesburg, an independent investigation by the Harvard Law School said.

THE Department of Water Affairs has finally provided clarity on how it will fund the treatment of contaminated water seeping out of old mining networks in Gauteng.
The long-term solution to the problem of acid-mine drainage will see end users, including households in the province, bearing a third of the cost, while mining companies will ultimately fund the rest of the cost.

THE last season’s below-average rainfall slowed the flow of toxic water from old mine workings, but has not deferred the urgent need to address it.
With no sign yet of the long-awaited government decision on a permanent solution to halt acid mine drainage (AMD), water quality around Johannesburg continues to deteriorate, even if the poisonous tide rising to street level — as some scientists warned — has not actually materialised.

The hazardous mining by-product raises two questions – who’s to blame and who should pay.
The acid mine drainage crisis is going to cost someone a lot of money, but probably not the people who caused it. The “polluter pays” principle was next to impossible to apply to the acid mine drainage problem in a retrospective way, said Marius Keet, chief director for mine water management at the department of water and sanitation.

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment is proud to announce the launch of the booklet titled “Rehabilitation of Mine Contaminated Eco-Systems. A Contribution to a Just Transition to a Low Carbon Economy to Combat Unemployment and Climate Change” by Mariette Liefferink of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE). The booklet was commissioned by the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) in collaboration with the Friedrick Ebert Stiftung.

Last week, the coalition of eight civil society and community organisations that has been resisting the proposed coal mine inside a protected area and strategic water source area in Mpumalanga launched further proceedings in the Pretoria High Court.

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